The Retirement Wisdom Podcast has surpassed 1 Million downloads thanks to you.

Retire Smarter. Don't miss a conversation in this free Retirement School:

Follow on Apple Podcasts or

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | Spotify | iHeartRadio | TuneIn | RSS

__________________________

Planning for retirement? Dreaming of your retirement? Wise things to do, indeed. But what's it really like? And what about when the honeymoon phase fades away? Brian Feutz shares his reflections on the first two years of his retirement. He began writing about retirement years before as he was researching it and planning his retirement  - and writing has become a big part of his new life after work.

__________________________
Bio
Brian Feutz lives on an island off the coast of Washington State with his wife of 32 years and the friendliest cat you’ll ever meet. He has an MBA, a Mensa certification, a wide variety of technical skills, and a decent collection of writing awards and recognitions. His left brain took the lead for most of his career, but in retirement he’s giving it a rest and focusing on creative passions. One of those passions is writing, specifically to help demystify retirement so average everyday people can understand, anticipate, and embrace the joys of retirement.

You’ll find Brian’s spoken and written words (fiction, non-fiction, essays, poetry, humor) scattered across the Internet on sites like Retirement Wisdom, Medium, BrianFeutz.com, DiscoverWalks, SmartNews, MakingOfAMillionaire, TowardsDataScience, EntrepreneursHandbook, BetterHumans, and many more.

Brian Feutz joins us from Washington State.

____________________________

For More On Brian Feutz 

Website 

Medium

Follow on X (formerly Twitter...)
Two Years Retired: An Honest and Thoughtful Reflection
_____________________________

Podcast Episodes You May Like

Independence Day – Steve Lopez

When Will You Flip the Switch? – Dr. Barbara O’Neill

Why Retirement is About Much More Than Money – Ted Kaufman & Bruce Hiland

Lessons Learned in Early Retirement – Chris Mamula

_______________________________

Wise Quotes

On Planning for Retirement - and the Reality

"You can read books about it, you can talk to people, you can do all that, but until you're there, you don't know what it's like. And so I had that fear and I had to fight my way through it. I liken that to parachute jumping. You can read about parachute jumping all day long, but until you step out of that airplane, you have no idea how exciting and thrilling it is to be on the other side of the retirement line. So fear was a big one there. And then how do I fill my day? Looking back on it, I talk to people all day long these days about retirement, and one of their biggest concerns is Will I be bored? or How do I fill my day?  The third, probably the number one most important one, is do I have enough money to live the lifestyle that I want to live and make it all the way through until I die and not run out of money? So I struggled with those. And my way of getting around it was to learn as much as I possibly could. And I wrote it down. I started making notes and sharing it with my friends, talking with my wife and all that sort of stuff. And I ended up writing about these things and that's how I got into writing."


 

On Finding Your Rhythm

"I felt sort of a pang of regret briefly. And then I woke up the next morning and I felt so free. Oh, this is great! I don't have to go to work. I don't have to worry about it. And I realized I had a good night's sleep, and the first few weeks or months was a little bit like that. Intoxication is probably the best word for it. I was so excited and I was running around talking to people and hiking and doing things with my wife, and I just enjoyed every single instant. I had a hard time going to sleep. I was having so much fun, not working. And then over the course of the first year, it was deer in the headlights.